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He started it! I was just minding my own business when out of the blue he looked at me funny. So I had to clock him. (bullies everywhere)
A month ago I reported:
I hear a lot of China bashing these days. To check, I surveyed the last ten China new articles in the Post and NYT. … Yup, top US newspapers are in full fledged China bashing mode.
Today’s top article at WashingtonPost.com is “China’s strident tone raises concerns”:
China’s indignant reaction to the announcement of U.S. plans to sell weapons to Taiwan appears to be in keeping with a new triumphalist attitude from Beijing that is worrying governments and analysts across the globe. From the Copenhagen climate change conference to Internet freedom to China’s border with India, China observers have noticed a tough tone emanating from its government. …
“The Chinese find with startling speed that people have come to view them as a major global player. And that has fed a sense of confidence.” Lieberthal said another factor in China’s new tone is a sense that after two centuries of exploitation by the West, China is resuming its role as one of the great nations of the world.
This new posture has befuddled Western officials and analysts. … Analysts say a combination of hubris and insecurity appears to be driving China’s mood. … What happens next will be crucial. China quietly sanctioned several U.S. companies for participating in such weapons sales in the past. However, it would mark a major change if China makes the list public.
So Western analysts are befuddled that China is surprising uppity – analyst explanations and remedies center on Chinese psychology and actions; surely nothing the West has done could be part of the explanation. “We were just standing here minding our own business when they just went all crazy …”
Uppity China
Not quite. That's what it looks like on the surface, but knowing what I do about the way the boys in Beijing operate, this is a storm in a teacup.
China doesn't want to go to war with Taiwan, because a war with Taiwan would lead to the biggest "international system cascade failure" we've seen since the outbreak of World War I. To that end, the current Taiwanese KMT government needs to remain in power, look strong, and maintain enough credibility to prevent Taiwan from voting for full independence from the mainland. Ma Ying-Jeou has currently been on rather shaky ground from moving too quickly for rapproachment with the mainland (despite the fact that everything he's done to date has generally involved giving Taiwan all the benefits of being "part of China" without the loss of sovereignty); he needs to look strong to opponents of reunification in order to keep the KMT dominant. Buying more arms from the US does this.
China will send the usual letter of complaint through the usual diplomatic channels; they will be ignored by everyone- and behind the closed doors of Zhongnanhai, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao will light their cigarettes and breathe sighs of relief that the Taiwan disaster has been averted for another few years- because they don't want it either.
(What, you say that they simply don't have to go to war with Taiwan? They are dictators, right? They call the shots, don't they? Well, not quite. But that's a lecture for another day...)
Loaning the U.S. money (at interest) so that they can continue to profit on exports to the U.S. and erode our manufacturing base. And so our politicians can put off a needed fiscal reckoning, allowing the inevitable to grow to catastrophic proportions. Yep, that sounds like China is just trying to help...
A more apt metaphor is the vampire who gives his victim CPR to keep the blood flowing out of the wound. That being said, on the economic stuff, we've mostly done it to ourselves. China just seized the opportunity to play a long winning game against an ADHD-affilicted opponent.
And how about them cyber attacks on our infrastructure?